Renewable power and aluminium

Although aluminium has great properties when it comes to energy-efficient recycling, the production of primary aluminium requires a lot of energy. By using renewable power and modern technology, we produce aluminium in the cleanest way possible.

Hydropower – the source of Hydro

Hydro may be best known as the world’s only fully integrated aluminium company, but our name betrays our history as pioneers in hydropower production. It all started in 1906 when we built a hydroelectric power plant at Svelgfoss, close to Notodden in Norway, to provide energy for our first potassium nitrate plant.

Hydropower and aluminium production

In 1963, we opened our first aluminium production plant based on hydropower on Karmøy, an island off the Norwegian west coast. This also marked the beginning of Hydro’s journey to become the world’s leading company in sustainable aluminium production.

Today, we operate more than 20 hydropower facilities throughout Norway, providing around 10TWh of clean and renewable energy annually for our aluminium production.

Renewable energy and the environment

Because it takes a lot of energy to produce aluminium, it is very important to use energy sources that leave a small carbon footprint. An aluminium plant that base its electricity on coal, as is common in several regions of the world, has five times higher CO2 emissions than one that base it on electricity from renewable sources. Therefore, our core strategy is to grow our operations in regions of the world where we can use power with zero emissions, such as hydropower, windpower, solar power and more.

Hydro Karmøy – still in front

True to our tradition of pioneering cleaner energy and more efficient production methods for primary aluminium, Hydro Karmøy is now the keystone in our biggest effort ever to modernize and streamline production methods in order to reduce our energy consumption. Based on HAL4e-technology from our research center in Årdal, Norway, Hydro Karmøy will cut energy consumption by 15% compared to the world average and also sprout other innovations that will fortify our position as the world’s leading sustainable aluminium producer.